It's been awhile since I did a leg workout. I did squats, calf raises, reverse leg curls, and leg press. Now I can't walk down or up the stairs properly without stumbling. Don't get me started on the toilet! Must be a good sign though that my workout was effective. Any remedies for this soreness?
None beyond the obvious -- Tylenol or Advil, a long hot shower, et cetera.
Here's something that might prevent soreness the next time. I don't know if this is age related (I'm nearly 60) or not, but I've noticed over the past few years that when I do some physical activity, if I stay *very* hydrated and don't let myself get hot then the next day's pain will be a lot less. So I guzzle refrigerated bottled water the whole time, as much as 80 ounces over a two to three hour period.
Good. It's almost impossible to drink too much water. But how much do you drink during your workout? That's what I'm talking about here. I might go through four 20-ounce water bottles, about 2/3 of a gallon, during a "workout." (Not lifting weights, but something like spending a morning cleaning out the basement.)
A piece of information I'll toss in. A grad school professor's research area was the thirst mechanism. Not my area, but I learned something interesting from him. By the time you feel thirsty, you're already dehydrated. So I keep pushing the water through while I'm working, not waiting to feel thirst. It means a few more trips to the bathroom but less soreness the next day.
Every hour, a healthy kidney at rest can excrete 800 to 1,000 milliliters, or 0.21 to 0.26 gallon, of water and therefore a person can drink water at a rate of 800 to 1,000 milliliters per hour without experiencing a net gain in water, Verbalis explains. If that same person is running a marathon, however, the stress of the situation will increase vasopressin levels, reducing the kidney's excretion capacity to as low as 100 milliliters per hour. Drinking 800 to 1,000 milliliters of water per hour under these conditions can potentially lead a net gain in water, even with considerable sweating, he says.
That's about the amount I'm drinking, and I'm not running a marathon but just routine yardwork and such, so I guess I'm OK.
I was a distance runner for almost two decades. During the interim of running races, I often did the heavy weight, leg work-out you mention here, that is, squats and leg-lifts. During that time, I discovered this, https://www.stack.com/a/contrast-shower and employed it in my then regimen. Maybe it was the power of suggestion, the placebo effect, whatever, but it seemed to work.